Ultrasound is a useful, non-invasive imaging method used for diagnosing a variety of conditions. Historically, ultrasound machines were large, expensive machines used only in radiology departments by high trained specialists. Various attempts have been made to reduce the size and cost of medical ultrasound systems while maintaining high image quality. There is a general desire to enable ultrasound to be more portable, and used at the point-of-care by more users.
One of the main factors that negatively affects ultrasound image quality is a type of inherent noise called speckle. Speckle reduces resolution and image contrast, decreasing diagnostic accuracy.
A variety of methods exist to reduce the impact of speckle, either by reducing how much speckle is created in the first place or by employing image processing to remove speckle from images. The goal of speckle reduction is to remove the speckle to increase image quality without losing too much useful diagnostic information. Smoothing can remove speckle, but also affects fine details and edges. There are better speckle reduction techniques. However, these typically require significant processing power and can therefore be performed only using hardware that provides significant computer resources.
There remains a need for apparatus and methods capable of producing good quality ultrasound images. The inventors have realized that there is a particular need for small, portable ultrasound devices which can provide such images.